Kingscourt Stars 1-9  Ballinagh 0-12

A late, late converted free by county minor star Barry Reilly denied Ballinagh the chance to secure their SFC survival at the first time of asking when the sides met in a sterling relegation play-off in Ballyhaise last weekend. The truth is neither side deserved to lose out on the day such was the nature of the exchanges and the zest and character demonstrated by both parties over the course of what was a rivetting hour-plus of honest endeavour.

Though they out-scored their opponents, Ballinagh will doubtless – like Kingscourt – feel that justice was served in the final analysis.  Both teams enjoyed lengthy periods of dominance but in the testing underfoot conditions, the carpet was always ripped from underneath them just when it looked as if they were on the cusp of obtaining a vice-like grip on the exchanges.

For instance, Kingscourt looked like running away with the match in the opening 20 minutes at the end of which they deservedly led by 0-5 to 0-1. For the most part of the second quarter, Ballinagh controlled matters, hitting six unanswered points in a real tour de force which suggested they had the werewithall to go on and claim the spoils. But the pendulum continued to swing this way and that with monotonous regularity and although a Tomas Malone goal on the three-quarter hour mark seemed to give Kingscourt the edge, Ballinagh enjoyed the better of the final ten minutes but were then denied at the death as stated.

Predictably long-time top-scorer Colin Gumley was Ballinagh’s sole point-scorer as they slipped behind by four points after Kingscourt’s electric start to the tie. The aforementioned Reilly popped over two of the Stars’ opening five points but in a Kingscourt display which was a good exercise in division of labour, Colm Smith, Darragh Gunne and Ryan McCormack also had made the scoresheet at that juncture.

With the wind at their backs, Ballinagh belatedly got into their stride with the relocation of Alan Durkin to full-forward; David Finnegan to midfield and Niall McDermott to the centre-forward berth central to the Saffrons’ second quarter rejuvenation. Kingscourt laboured to stem the tide and a hat-trick of points from Gumley and an especially classy long-range effort from Enda Brady helped propel Ballinagh into a 0-7 to 0-5 lead.

The half-time whistle sounded a mite too early for Ballinagh but Kingscourt took full advantage of the break in play to regroup and come out for the second half with a greater focus, energy and vigour.
Barry Reilly and Ryan McCormack fired over a point apiece to tie the scores, 0-7 apiece, once more with 38 minutes on the clock. Ballinagh edged ahead then by the odd point in 15 before Thomas Malone toe-poked the ball to the net after a goalmouth scramble in the 45th minute.

Ballinagh circled the wagons and showed good character to rebound from the shock of Malone’s major and thanks, in part, to a fine David Finnegan point, came back to level matters at 1-7 to 0-10 with 12 minutes left to play. It was level-pegging from there to the finish with only a lengthy hold-up for an unfortunate injury to Colm Kierans causing a break in the flow of the game from one end of the field to the other. Anthony Gaynor finished off a splendid move late on which seemed to bring Kingscourt closer to the relegation trapdoor but up stepped Reilly to send his free over the bar, via a deflection, and so ensure at least one more day out for both teams in the championship.

Kingscourt Stars;
Ronan Tinnelly; Patrick Farrelly, Colm Kierans, Shane Grey; Philip Tinnelly, Alan Clarke, Keith McCabe; Neil McCabe, Colm Smith (0-1); Barry Tully, Barry Reilly (0-5), Tomas Malone (1-0); Darragh Gunne (0-1), Ryan McCormack (0-2), Darragh Martin.
Subs; Brendan Corcoran for N McCabe; Mark McKeon for D Gunne; Gavin Sheenan for C Kierans (inj); Sean Og Gargan for T Malone.

Ballinagh;
Darragh McCarthy; Killian McBride, Patrick Carroll, Damien McInerney; Niall O’Reilly, Padraic O’Reilly, Enda Brady (0-1); Alan Durkin, Anthony Gaynor (0-1); Kevin Smith (0-1), David Finnegan (0-1), Paul Urbanski (0-1); Colin Gumley (0-5), Niall McDermott (0-2), Thomas Moore.
Subs; Adrian Maguire for A Durkin; Nevin McKiernan for T Moore.

Ref; Patrick Brady (Castlerahan)

Match Report published courtesy of Kevin Carney